Doctoral Dissertation Research: Innovating Iconographic Analysis to Improve Understanding of the Relationship between Social Organization and Ritual in Indigenous American Culture

这个项目研究了古代物质对象在过去的美洲印第安社区中的作用。以前的考古学研究往往试图了解土著文物及其意义使用的框架通知西方传统。相比之下，该项目在当代北美土著文化所信奉的哲学原则的背景下解释了古代美洲印第安陶瓷。这种方法产生了新的见解土著艺术的意义，即如何这些对象可能有助于土著社区的神圣和世俗的基础。重要的是，这种方法还包括与现代美洲印第安民族及其部落历史保护办公室的频繁沟通，表明了北美考古研究如何以道德和尊重的方式进行。该项目最终力求产生可供后裔社区以他们认为对自己的人民和部落目标最有价值的方式使用的成果。一个虚拟的博物馆展览展示船只照片，3D模型，以及解释的细节，并与土著合作者以及其他学者和普通公众分享部落的愿望。博士生具体评估了政治和宇宙学意义的装饰陶瓷由美国印第安人生产的密西西比河谷的阿肯色州和密苏里州在公元十五世纪。在这里，生活在人口稠密和高度争议的政治景观中的陶工创造了大量描绘土著宇宙，精神生物和文化英雄的彩绘和雕刻陶瓷器皿。对这种艺术的研究为生活在美国南部的过去土著社区之间的政治和宗教关系提供了新的视角。使用图像分析，3D建模和地理信息系统的创新组合，该项目（1）描述了生产，功能，这些陶器中的意象，然后（2）在美国印第安人哲学信条的背景下解释了这一艺术语料库的神圣和世俗意义。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。

This project examines the role of ancient material objects in past American Indian communities. Previous archaeological scholarship has often attempted to understand Native artifacts and their significance using frameworks informed by Western traditions. In contrast, this project interprets ancient American Indian ceramics within the context of philosophical tenets espoused by contemporary Native North American cultures. This approach generates novel insights into the significance of Indigenous art, namely how such objects may have contributed to the sacred and secular underpinnings of Native communities. Importantly, this approach, which also includes frequent communication with modern American Indian nations and their tribal historic preservation offices, demonstrates how North American archaeological research focusing on Indigenous topics can be conducted ethically and respectfully. This project ultimately strives to produce results that can be used by descendant communities in ways that they deem most valuable to their own people and tribal objectives. A virtual museum exhibit displaying vessel photos, 3D models, and interpretive details produced and shared with Native collaborators as well as other scholars and the general public as the tribes wish.The doctoral student specifically assesses the political and cosmological significance of decorated ceramics produced by American Indians in the Mississippi Valley of Arkansas and Missouri during the fifteenth century AD. Here, potters living within a densely populated and highly contentious political landscape created a large quantity of painted and engraved ceramic vessels that depicted the Native cosmos, spirit beings, and culture heroes. An examination of this art offers new perspectives on the relationships between politics and religion among past Indigenous communities living in the American South. Using an innovative combination of iconographic analysis, 3D modeling, and geographic information systems, this project (1) describes fundamental aspects of production, function, and imagery among these pottery vessels and then (2) interprets the sacred and secular significance of this art corpus within the context of American Indian philosophical tenets.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.